Our thematic selections : Yemen today

Arabia Felix, or Fortunate Arabia, the name used by Pliny the Elder, seems a far cry from the situation of civil war that has devastated the country for more than six years.

For much of the 20th century, Yemen was divided into two distinct entities. The two independent states adopted very different regimes.

Yemen reunified in 1990, but this did not put an end to the multiple and ongoing religious, tribal and ideological divisions, and the turmoil has been severe since that date. The Arab Spring in Yemen in 2011 did not lead to a peaceful democracy, and in 2014, the Houthi movement, the name of a Shiite faction that had been severely curtailed in the 1990s, sparked a new conflict.

Saudi Arabia, leading a coalition of ten countries, and the Houthi movement, supported by Iran, have been locked in a bloody battle since March 2015, and inside Yemen, the action by new belligerents linked by shifting alliances—notably Al Quadi in the Arabian Peninsula and secessionist groups in the south—has complicated the situation in the country even more.

Civilians have suffered an appalling toll throughout these overlapping battles, and epidemics and famine have further aggravated the unprecedented humanitarian crisis ravaging the country. Despite hopes raised with the Stockholm Agreement in December 2018, fighting still has not stopped.

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